Thursday, May 8, 2008

Grandparents

Allie was also born on my grandfather's birthday. The grandfather I never got to meet, he died before I was born. When I was born, I had 3 living grandparents. Both of my dad's parents and my mom's mom. I was very close to my mom's mom, Big Mama is what we called her. We lost her in 1990, and it is still very hard on my mom.

My only living grandparent is my dad's mom, and I haven't talked to her in years. His dad died in 2001, and let's just say that I don't have too many fond memories of him. My grandmother is pretty much estranged from all of her kids, except one. It's a very sticky situation that I don't really understand. How you can choose one of your kids and treat the other 5 the way that she does. But I made peace with the situation a long time ago and I can honestly say it doesn't bother me any longer. That still doesn't mean I understand it though.

I look at my parents with Allie and wonder how a grandparent can not care about their grandchildren? Not care enough to treat them ALL equally and love them all the same. What kind of person does that? And when they are little, not as older adults when you can use the excuse that you don't like the person they have become or agree with some of the decisions they have made. Anyway, enough about that.

When I married Ben in 2003, he had all 4 grandparents. How awesome is that? From day one I have felt like a part of the family and they have treated me as such. Unfortunately, we lost PawPaw Ned in February of this year. He was 89 and had cancer, again. He was lucky enough to have all of his children, most of his grandchildren and his wife by his side when he took his last breath. I hope we can all be that fortunate.

So to sum it up, Allie is a very lucky little girl. And it might sound crazy, but at only 2 1/2, I think she already knows it.